Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical biological terror, but beneath Together lies a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, the two stars contribute a particular energy to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The story commences when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying horror experience, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He is terrified of the concept of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together refrains from painting one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple face the kind of problems that arise in most partnerships over a long period. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor avoids being hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
